Page 80 of Vipers and Vendettas
‘So, tell me. How’s he meeting you here if you have his link key?’
‘Uh, well, he said that was his spare.’
‘Or, more likely, you stole it from him and tried to travel with it.’ He tuts. ‘All our link keys have a failsafe, so they don’t fall into the wrong hands, silly girl.’
‘Huh,’ I mutter, side-eying the vamps to my right who look like they’re getting antsy. ‘Smart.’
A couple of the vamps step forward, looking excited.
The chum is definitely in the water now.
I throw up my hands and give an exaggerated shrug, a rueful grin alighting my face like I don’t have a care in the world as I go to Plan B. I feel sick at the thought, but I feel sick a lot anyway, and it’ll at least buy me some time to figure something else out.
‘Okay, you got me!’ I smile, turning it into a mock grimace. ‘Pierre’s dead.Oops.’
The vamp in front of me doesn’t say a word for at least a minute as he gets angrier and angrier, his face turning the veriest shade of red.
I sort of wonder how he can do that. I figured the vamps were all black and dusty inside, but then I guess a ton of blood sprayed out when I killed Pierre.
‘He’s been with me for two hundred years!’ he explodes at me. ‘Youkilled him?’
His disgusted eyes travel over my slight form.
That’s right, you vampy asshole, underestimate me. I’m just a little human.
‘Yeah,’ I put my hands up. ‘I know, sorry. My bad.’
He staggers towards me, looking incredulous.
‘You lie!’ he hisses. ‘You’re protecting someone. But we’ll get it out of you. Do you have any idea how much you’re going to suffer at our hands, human? You sealed your fate when you stole that link key.’
‘Uh huh.’ I let down my conjure as he gets near and pull my shirt down so he can see my slave mark on my chest. ‘So, about that ...’
He stops in his tracks when he sees the brand, recognizing it instantly.
I’m all at once emboldened and terrified by his reaction. Theywereafter me for him.
‘You do anything to me, and Tamadrielle is gonna bepissed,’ I say.
I make myself look down at it and then up at him.
‘Yeah,’ I give him a wink. ‘I’m that girl you’ve been looking for.’
McCathrie throws his head back and laughs, his anger seemingly gone for the moment.
‘Well played, human, well played!’
He looks over at a figure I haven’t noticed before this. He’s standing unmoving in the corner behind a couple of vamps.
‘Guess we don’t need you anymore, do we?’ he spits, and a man I recognize from Maddox’s house the first time I was there walks forward.
I can’t even pretend I’m not floored.
‘Robertson?’
ChapterEleven
Daemon
